


Autumn

by ApexOnHigh



Category: Law & Order
Genre: Gen, ToT: Monster Mash, Trick or Treat 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 01:12:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8424892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApexOnHigh/pseuds/ApexOnHigh
Summary: New York has always been home to Lennie.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sidewinder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidewinder/gifts).



Lennie Briscoe was born and raised in New York City. It was the only city he’d ever lived in, the one place he’d considered home for all of his life.

Other police officers could put in their twenty and then retire to a nice house with their family in the suburbs, or pack it all up and move to Florida, or maybe North Carolina. But not Lennie. He lived and breathed Manhattan just like he lived and breathed being a cop.

It was who he was, through and through.

New York in the autumn months was a particular favorite of his. The cooler temperatures made it pleasant to walk about, and the threat of the winter chill still seemed distant, abstract. The inexplicably enticing aroma coming off the hot dog carts became especially warming and inviting, maybe with some roasted peanuts and a paper cup of wicked strong coffee. He could sit in Central Park and watch the world go by: joggers enduring their masochistic efforts along the reservoir, nannies wheeling around the babies and toddlers of the privileged up and down the East Side; the leaves changing color and falling over the lawns, children scrunching them underfoot with delight.

Seeing those kids made Lennie think about Cathy, taken from this world before she could even see the autumn years of her own life. He thought about how much he longed to see her again, how it would be easy to go to that place where he’d find her…but some part of him simply wasn’t ready for that.

So instead, he’d go to the other parks at night, the ones in this city where young girls like Cathy could be found, strung out on drugs, some selling themselves to feed their habit. He’d try to talk to them, try to let them know there was a way out that didn't have to end in sorrow and death, but most of the time he couldn’t tell if they heard a word he said.

During the day, sometimes, he would go to the 27th and see how his old squad was making out…even try to coax them along in their investigations, in whatever subtle ways he could whisper in an ear or leave a clue somehow otherwise overlooked. But more and more, the faces there weren’t ones he knew or recognized. Time was moving on, people came and went…

…and somehow he remained behind. Because he simply couldn’t let it go.

Lennie Briscoe had been been born and raised in New York City. He had also died here, many years before. And with each passing year, every changing season, he wondered when and if he’d ever be able to move on to whatever else lay beyond this world.

Maybe, someday. But for now the city was still his home, and home to the people he’d sworn to protect.


End file.
